Lockheed Hudson, AM885, Kinnagh, Wexford, 1943

Nine old tattered pages are all that is contained in the Irish
Army archive report on the crash of a British aircraft near
Ballycullane in County Wexford, Ireland on the 16th of September
1943. Three airmen from the British and Canadian air forces lost
their lives in this little known crash.

The authorities recorded that at about 15:15 on the afternoon
of Saturday, the 16th September, an aircraft crashed into a
field in the townland of Kinnagh. Local Gardai and members of
the Local Defence Force (LDF) were first to the scene and they
reported back to the Irish Army coastal fort at Duncannon. The
owner of the field was one Moses O'Neill. Sadly, no aid could be
brought to the occupants of the aircraft as it had been
completely destroyed in the crash. The aircraft had been
consumed by the post crash fire. The military party from the 1st
Field Company based at Duncannon could do no more than gather up
the wreckage and return it to the fort for disposal.

Before this however, those present had the sad task of
recovering from the wreckage the remains of those on board. Upon
arrival the Irish army party had immediately found the remains
of two men. Despite the fire which burned on into the evening,
these two bodies were recovered and another was then found under
the the aircraft. From these bodies some letters were recovered
and it was possible to identify two of the airmen provisionally.
It was believed they were

Part of a typed report in the Army file records: "The number of
the plane was given as P.8825. It was a twin engined one and the
Military Officer who went to the scene thought it was a
"Beaufighter". "Afterwards I learned that it was a Hudson
Bomber." It is not made clear in the Irish Army
report where the supposed number P.8825 was being read or
guessed from, the serial AM885 would would have been painted on
the rear fuselage of the aircraft but by all accounts this was
burned out.

The report goes on to say:"The Command O.C. [Officer
Commanding] gave instructions that Officer quality coffins
should be procured and the bodies conveyed to the Border on
the 17th instant. Duncannon reported that they would be
procured in Waterford.
This report was sent by Commandant D Mackey of the G2, Army
Intelligence, Section in Curragh Command. He goes on in his
concluding paragraphs: I had a phone call from Comdt. Quinn at 10.00 hrs. on the
17th inst. informing me that an Official from the British
Office would call to the Curragh later and go to Duncannon and
that he would probably send an officer with him. The Officer
from Baldonnel with the British representative called to
headquarters, Curragh at 13:15 hours and proceeded after an
interview with me to Duncannon Fort.
Capt. O'Toole proceeded with the bodies from Duncannon Fort to
Dundalk at 14.20 hrs. on the 17th inst. The adjutant, Eastern
Command was notified accordingly so that the arrangements for
handing over at the Border could be completed.
It was also arranged that the handing over of personal papers
etc. would take place at the same time.

Further hand written notes in the file indicate that Capt. P.
O'Sullivan and F.Lt Moore of the RAF did visit the scene on the
morning of the 17th of September. The remains of the aircraft
were such that the Irish Air Corps indicated no interest in
salvage and what could be removed was taken to Fort Duncannon
for disposal. And thus the sad affair ended.

The aircraft had been recorded in the hour prior to the crash
flying around the south coast of Ireland, it was believed to
have been heard by Gardai at Skibbereen in Cork, flying south,
and then by the Irish Coastwatching Service Look Out Post (LOP)
at Toe Head, the Garda stations at Cobh and Whitegate flying
overland on the east coast of Cork Harbour, where they believed
it turned south and was next heard by the LOP's at Ballycotton
and Hook Head moving North East. Little mention is made of the
weather conditions in the filed reports and memo's from Irish
sources but it should be perhaps noted that the aircraft was
'heard' by the Gardai and LOP's personnel, rather than sighted.
In June 1945 following the end of the war, the local Wexford
newspaper, the New Ross Standard, ran a short article about this
crash and the loss of an Anson in the same year. This article
begins, "On Thursday, 16th Sept., 1943, a day on which
visibility was very bad, a British aeroplane crashed at Kinnagh,
in a field adjoining the main Wexford-Duncannon road. There were
three occupants and all were killed."
It goes on to mention the names of the two men identified and
that the third man, who could not be named at the time, had
'objects of piety' in his possession which indicated he was
Catholic. An inquest was held by the Coroner for South Wexford,
Mr F M O'Connor with evidence from Capt. Coughlan of the Irish
Army and Dr. Toohill both from Duncannon. No reason for the mens
deaths could be arrived at by this civil court but it was
assumed that mechanical defect or fuel starvation caused the
crash. The three men were registered dead in the New Ross
registration district following this inquest, their names being
recorded as, 'J Male Colhoun'; 'A J (Male) Chaloner' and the
final member simply as 'Male'.

And so what of the three men, their names could finally be
confirmed by the UK authorities and we can easily find their
names now using the Commonwealth War Grave Commission website,
www.cwgc.org. The crew consisted of a Scottish pilot, a Welsh
navigator and a Canadian radio operator/ air gunner. Details of
the crew can also be confirmed from the Royal Canadian Air Force
service record of F/Sgt A J Chabara.

Among the records in F/Sgt Chabara service file are copies of
telegrams sent in the immediate aftermath of the crash and an
Air Ministry Form 765, 'Report on Flying Accident or Forced
landing not attributable to enemy action'. These provide the
background to the flight that ended so tragically in Kinnagh.

F/Sgt John COLHOUN 657975 +, Pilot

F/Sgt Pryce OWEN 655407 + Navigator

F/Sgt Alexander James CHABARRA R/131724 + RCAF

John Colhoun came from Paisley in Scotland, the son of
Patrick and Margaret Theresa Colhoun. His remains were returned
to his parents and are buried in Paisley Hawkhead Cemetery. He
had attended Saint Mirins Academy pre war and was a 1939
Graduate of the University of Glasgow. Little else is known
about John. He is buried with his parents in the plot in
Paisley. He had at least four older siblings, Sarah,
Patrick, James and Francis and one older, Michael. The
last of these, Patrick and James both died in 1973 it
seems. John Colhoun's grave was unmarked unmarked until at
least 2015, except for the family headstone which commemorates
his father, died 1932, and grand father, died 1925. John's
mother passed away in 1940. The Commonwealth War Graves
Commission placed a memorial slab on the grave sometime after
November 2015.

Pryce Owen was the third airman from the crew, the man
whose name could not be identified by the Irish authorities. His
remains were returned to his mother for burial in the local
Penygroes Cemetery, Llanllyfni, Caernarvon. A local resident was
kind enough to visit his grave in 2006 and provided the words
from the headstone inscription, which reads:
In Treasured memory of
our dear son
Flight Sergent Pryce Owen
12 Maes Dulyn Penygroes
who lost his life over Ireland
Sept 16 1943 aged 23 years
Only those who know are able to tell
How sad is the parting without a farewell

His parents were Sarah Ellen and Albert Richard Owen. His
father was described as an aircraft fitter in his sons probate
records.

A letter sent to his sister in 2006 was replied to by his
nephew, the late Judge M Farmer from Wales. He was aware of the
crash and told of a local man from Wexford who wrote to Sgt
Owen's family. Sadly, his nephew has since passed away before
any further information could be exchanged or a photo obtained.
It is hoped that his nephew's family might be able to assist to
this end in the future. Pryce had moved to London for work prior
to his enlisting the RAF. A local Wexford man, Michael Power,
wrote to the Owen family on June 24th, 1945 to say: His
plane crashed into a field beside my house. I was the first on
the spot. I saw immediately that the boys were past all human
aid so that nothing could be done but just let the plane keep
on burning, the bodies were all thrown from the plane by the
shock of the crash and were not burned.

Pryce's name is recorded on the Penygroes town war memorial,
with the spelling Price Owen.

F/Sgt Alexander James CHABARA
was the final member of the crew of Hudson AM855. The son of
Nick and Rose Chabara, he came from Vilna, Alberta, Canada, a
small village founded only in 1907 during the building of the
railroads. He worked from 1935 to 1940 as a clerk and later
manager in a general store in East Coulee, Alberta. He enlisted
in the Air Force on 19 September 1941 and began his training
early in 1942 in Canada. He trained in No. 2 Wireless School in
Calgary and 7 Bombing and Gunnery School in Paulson, Manitoba.
He sailed to Europe in March 1943 and was posted to number 1
(Coastal) Operational Training Unit ((C)OTU) in June 1943. This
unit was based at RAF Thornaby in Yorkshire. The three airmen
may have formed a new training crew at this location and may
have been in training together to form a future frontline crew
together. His service file lists a posting dated 18th August
1943 to RAF Lyneham from 1 (C) OTU. A J Chabara was laid to rest
in the cemetery in Eglantine, County Down in Northern Ireland.

The documents relating to the crash in F/Sgt Chabara's file in
Canada indicate that the aircraft they were flying, Lockheed
Hudson serial number AM885 was assigned to number 301 Ferry
Training Unit, based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. RAF Lyneham
had become in 1943 a headquarters for RAF Transport Command and
important center for the management of aircraft being sent
overseas to the Mediterranean for example. The reason for the
flight of AM885 on the 16th of September is listed as being a
non operational, daytime, consumption test. This mission type
points to the aircraft and crew preparing for a ferry flight
from the UK to perhaps Gibraltar in the weeks ahead. By this
stage in the war, the Lockheed Hudson had been largely replaced
as a front line aircraft in RAF Coastal Command for patrols in
the Atlantic. It was however used in the Mediterranean
extensively into 1944. It is possible that the crew of AM885
might have been posted overseas had they not crashed in Wexford.

Although born and raised at or near Vilna, Alberta, for a while
prior to joining the Air Force, Alexander worked in the
small mining community of East Coulee. When he died, East
Coulee claimed him as one of their own, and his name appears on
their cenotaph. Alex's neice provided this photo of the
memorial.

Due to the complete destruction of the aircraft and the fact
that the crash occurred in neutral Irish territory, the contents
of the RAF Form 765 for AM885 are extremely limited. Where one
might normally find some piece of narrative in the Sections 10
to 13, one only finds the statements, 'None available - Pilot
Killed', Not available - crash occurred in neutral territory'
etc.

The location of the crash is shown in the maps and photos
below. The Irish Army variously describe the location as Kinnagh
and Ballycullane and to have been adjacent to the main road.
During a visit to Kinnagh in August 2015, a call to some of the
houses in Kinnagh resulted in meeting the Whelan family who
currently own the field into which the aircraft crashed. The
current owners assured me that the location was on the south
east corner of the cross roads in Kinnagh townland between the
road in Kinnagh and the main R733 road from Duncannon to
Wellingtonbridge. The field is shown in the below screen grab
from the OSI website, with the modern day field having been
formed from about six older, smaller fields. I was told that
despite the lack of any debris from the crash, if one was
ploughing the field, traces of blackened soil is still evident.